1-16-2014 Josie the Wildcat

I love seeing my kids playing sports.

1-6-2014 basketball with a Fuji X100s

I love having a little camera that I can take anywhere and get decent shots.  The HA Wildcats got the best of Bradford last night.  I stood under the goal with a ISO of 4000 shooting at 1/250th at F2.8.  Not bad in my opinion.

68/365 Fans in all sizes

3-9-2013

Shooting the GAC basketball tournament in Bartlesville, OK.  Trying to find something that was not a player shooting the ball.  I saw this little girl watching the game through the VIP lounge window.  Fans do come in all sizes.

Differing Points of View

Basketball is a spirited game and in any competitions there are always going to be events that are disputed. That is why we have referees.

I spent one Saturday morning of my 11th grade year of HS as a basketball referee. I had played basketball for several years and knew the rules of the game. I was scheduled to call 5 games of 3rd Grade basketball for which I got paid $20. That was one miserable morning. I had been prepared on the rules of the game. I was seriously lacking on fan confrontation and spirited disputes. That was my first and last official refereeing job unless you count being a parent and that is not what we are talking about now.

I learned that I'm a much better photographer than referee. Photographing still keeps me in the heat of the action, just in a more mild mannered way. Often the camera catches things that the referees miss. Now before you get outraged, a foul was called on the photo below. But I seriously disagreed that the Christian Brothers player is the one being fouled. No matter what I think about that call, I respect referees and the job they do.

Wrong Camera

Came home last night after work to find Jackson practicing his dunking abilities. We have two basketball goals at our house, one set at 10' and the other set to 6'6". Jackson can almost dunk with a basketball on the short goal, if he could just palm the ball.

Well I could almost get a great photo if I could just control the shutter lag of the iPhone. I liked this shot anyway. I am reading Within The Frame by David duChemin and he says to express you vision. This is my vision of Jackson coming in for the dunk. Photo edited in The Best Camera and then I dumped the resolution down using Photogene.

Jackson and some Basketball Memories

Here is another of my film shots. I envisioned this portrait of Jackson holding the basketball with the goal in the background being out of focus. Shooting with my old Canon T-70 with a 50mm F1.8 lens nearly wide open that was easy. I remember being a kid Jackson's age and playing basketball. Our goal was mounted to our garage which was at the back of the backyard. The yard sloped down to the garage so it was not level at all. We kept the boat, go kart, lawn mower and bicycles in the garage. There was a small uneven concrete slab in front of the goal which was set at abour 8 ft. On the left side of the goal were pine trees and the fence. Behind the fence was a wooded field where we played and shot our bb guns. You had to be careful not to put too much air into you ball or it would bounce over the fence and it was a real pain to get your ball back because it was often muddy behind the fence. So needless to say we always shot from the right side of the goal. Over time as the ball hit the rim on the right side it would loosen the rim until it would start tilting too the right. When my dad would tighten it back up and you couldn't hit anything for a few days because you had adjusted to the tilted rim. Other things I remember about basketball as a kid. We also had a nerf goal mounted to the door at the end of the hall. I remember my mom playing nerf basketball with me. i also remember in those early years of nerf b-ball that I would re-enact Memphis State games on my nerf court. Keith Lee and Phillip "Doom" Haynes were the players that I liked the best. Jack Eaton, the Channel 5 sports caster, did the play by play for the tigers and I loved listening to him call the games on my old clock radio. In 3rd grade ( the grade Jackson will be in when school starts) our team won first place in basketball. I think I scored 4 points all season. All the Harding Academy elementary schools formed their own league. The star of our team was Trey Nolan. Trey's dad was the coach. In 4th grade we were the worst team in the league because Trey played in a city league. I distinctly remember playing Quince Road that year because we lost the game 20 something to 6 but I had all 6 points. I hit three jump shots from the right side. I guess all the shooting from the right side payed off in that one game. My best year as a basketball player was 6th grade. I don't remember our record but it wasn't that great. I think I averaged about 8 points a game and a few rebounds. I was as tall as I am now in 6th grade so I was considered tall back then. Our coach was our 6th grade teacher, Ken Roberts. Ken is also part of my family, he is married to my cousin Barbara. Ken was a fun coach. One of his many talents was juggling. One afternoon after practice he was juggling 2 basketballs and asked me to toss in a third. Well I didn't toss the ball in, I threw the ball at him so he would drop the other two and then I ran because I knew he would get me. As we walked across the street back to school I was walking about 30 ft behind Ken and the rest of the team because I knew he was going to get me. Well he looked back at me and I stopped. He turned around and started walking again and as I started walking he threw a basketball over his shoulder in my general direction. I wasn't paying a lick of attention and the ball hit me in the mouth which had just been fitted with braces about a month before. It freaked him out that he had hit me and he was worried to death about screwing up the braces. The braces were fine but the inside of my lips were all cut up from the ball hitting my mouth. This story sounds horrible by today standards but back then it was just a teacher and a kid horsing around. In Jr High I gave up basketball because I wasn't that good. My friends and I would play pickup games after lunch and we would usually play 21. I had to learn to become a shooter because I could hardly ever get a rebound. But if I ever got the ball and hit a shot I could usually win because I could hit the rest of my points to 21 in free throws. Eventually my friends instituted a 5 point free throw limit to help make the games a little more fair. Well so much for the basketball memories. The kids love to play basketball in the gym after church. Jalen really loves to play speed with the big kids. One final picture of Jackson. He wanted me to take a shot as he made a layup. Unfortunately, just as he went up the ball slipped out of his hand.

Basketball by Craig

I am editing basketball photos today that my student worker Craig Rainbolt shot and I ran across this. I haven't seen Craig to get the story but what an awesome shot.

Update
I'm not really sure exactly what happend here. I think he dove for the ball or kinda jumped off the court when he passed the ball. or got hit, not really sure if you cant tell. All I know is all of the sudden he was hitting the wall right next to me, less than a foot away. I thought it was an interesting photo myself. Glad you like it.

-Craig

Photo by Jamie

Jamie and Jalen decided they were going to photograph the basketball games a couple of weeks ago. I just downloaded Jamie's camera and found this shot of the referees during a time-out that I really like. She had some other good shots on the roll but this one wins the prize.

Update

I told Jamie about this photo tonight and she told me the rest of the story. She said I was complaining about my shots of the referees so she decided she would see if she could get something decent of the referees herself. The refs were blocking my view of the action. Jamie was just thinking I couldn't get a good shot. I think Jamie has the right idea on photographing officials.